Maharaja Gulab Singh was the founder of the Dogra dynasty; he was the first Maharaja of the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir were the second-largest princely under British rule, created after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the First Anglo-Sikh War.

During the war, Gulab Singh kept himself detached from the war that helped British victory. Later, in the Treaty of Amritsar signed in 1846, Gulab Singh bought Kashmir from British Empire by paying 7,500,000 Nanakshahi Rupees. Under the rule of Maharaja Gulab Singh, Kashmir remained a self-governing state within the British Empire for another century. Even though the ruling family of the state was Hindu, the majority of the population of Kashmir remains Muslim.

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